To the Editor: Up and coming surgical registrar, Ken Wong, presents a revolutionary plan to allow him to look after surgical patients in the operating theatre.1 The use of the telephone for communication has merit, but he won’t feel so smug when he gets to the chapter entitled “The management of surgical patients in NSW public hospitals in winter”. There will be nowhere for Dr Wong to “hide” when he realises our operating theatres are, in fact, solar powered and that, when the sun goes down in winter, the theatres conk out. Surely now, with the statewide mergers of health services, there will be enough excess “committee people” to form a collaboration with the western NSW farmers so that the mice plague can be harnessed and trained to run on the cogs and at least provide lighting during power shortages. I’m sure my daughter could lend a few cats to chase the mice. In the absence of the provision of more hospital beds, the substitution of cat-and-mouse power for solar power is the best “winter strategy” I’ve heard in the last 10 years. This concept will feature in our next chapter, “How to train surgeons without patients or operating time”.